The black jacobin (''Florisuga fusca'') is a species of

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

in the family

Trochilidae Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

. It is found in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The black jacobin was traditionally placed in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus ''Melanotrochilus'', but voice, anatomy, and reproductive behavior place it in ''Florisuga'' with the

white-necked jacobin The white-necked jacobin (''Florisuga mellivora'') is a medium-sized hummingbird that ranges from Mexico south through Central America and northern South America into Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. It is also found in Trinidad and Tobago. Its other ...

. The species is monotypic.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021Schuchmann, K.L., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Black Jacobin (''Florisuga fusca''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blkjac1.01 retrieved November 13, 2021

Description

The black jacobin is long. Males weigh about and females . Adults of both sexes are mostly black, with a bronzy-olive lower back and uppertail- and

wing-coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

. The flanks are white, the inner

rectrices Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the Bird wing, wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those ...

black, and the outer rectrices white with black tips. Juveniles are dark except for a wide cinnamon band on the center and sides of the throat and a white belly and outer rectrices.

Distribution and habitat

The black jacobin is found in southeastern Brazil, approximately from

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

south through

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

and into eastern Uruguay, and separately in southeastern Paraguay, northeastern Argentina, and adjoining Brazil. There are also scattered records from sites outside its primary range. It mostly inhabits woodlands, gardens, and coffee and cacao plantations with tall trees. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Movement

The black jacobin is migratory, but the pattern is not well understood. The trend is for southward movement for the austral winter, though there are also winter records to the northwest in the

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

biome of south-central Brazil.

Feeding

The black jacobin forages at all levels of its habitat. It feeds on nectar at the flowers of many native and introduced trees and shrubs and from

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

s as well. The species is highly territorial and defends food sources against

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

s and other species. However, "congregations" of 50 or more have been documented in July feeding on patches of ''

Dombeya wallichii ''Dombeya wallichii'' is a flowering shrub of the family Malvaceae known by the common names pinkball, pink ball tree, and tropical hydrangea.Carter, KTropical Hydrangea: ''Dombeya wallichi''.Center for Landscape and Urban Horticulture. Universi ...

'', an introduced shrub. In addition to nectar, the black jacobin takes small insects on the wing and from leaves and spider webs.

Breeding

The black jacobin breeds between July and May, and two broods per year are common. Its nest is a cup made of fine plant fibers and cobweb, placed on the mid-rib of a large horizontal leaf, typically between up in a tree or shrub. The clutch size is two eggs. Females use a display flight to distract predators.

Vocalization

The black jacobin's song is "a series of high-pitched hissing notes above 10 kHz, 'szee..szee....szee..szee..szee....szee...'." Its calls include "a short 'tsik' or 'chik', and a short trill 'tr-r-r'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the black jacobin as being of Least Concern, though its population has not been quantified and its trend is not known. It is common in Brazil and occurs in many protected areas. "Ready occupation of man-made habitats suggests that habitat loss is unlikely to be a problem."

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q602113 black jacobin Birds of the Atlantic Forest Birds of Argentina Birds of Brazil Birds of Uruguay black jacobin Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot Taxonomy articles created by Polbot